Israel civil aviation authority

Vietnam and Israel signed an air transport agreement Wednesday, providing a legal framework to launch direct flights between the two countries due to increasing demand.
Signatories to the 24-article agreement were Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications and Head of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam Nguyen Tien Sam and Israeli Ambassador to Vietnam Ephraim Ben-Matityau.
Addressing the signing ceremony, Deputy Minister Nguyen Tien Sam said the agreement will facilitate direct flights between Vietnam and Israel which will help boost bilateral economic, cultural, scientific and technological cooperation. … [Read more...] about Vietnam, Israel ink with air transport agreement

A small passenger plane crashed into a hill outside the capital of Honduras on February 14, killing all 14 people aboard, officials said.
The twin-engine Let L-410 aircraft had taken off from the northwest city of San Pedro Sula carrying 12 passengers and two pilots and was en route to Toncontin International Airport in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, the Honduran Civil Aviation Department said.
The airline, operated by Central American Airways, is not affiliated with a US airline with the same name.
At about 8:00AM, once it had been cleared to land, the plane began descending toward the airport but lost communication with the control tower, the department said.
The first people to arrive at the crash site were residents of the nearby village who found one of the pilots still alive. "It's sad to hear a person in the rubble asking, "Help! Help! Help!", said Jorge Sandrez, mayor of Santa Ana.
Emergency personnel were searching for the data recorders to help in the … [Read more...] about Plane crash in Honduras kills all 14 aboard

A relative waits for news at St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport after a plane with 224 people on board crashes in Sinai during a flight to Russia
The chartered passenger plane had taken off from the south Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh bound for Saint Petersburg and lost contact with air traffic control 23 minutes later.
Ambulances reached the site of the crash, in a remote mountainous area in the middle of the peninsula, and began evacuating "casualties," officials and state media reported.
The head of the Egyptian civil aviation authority Mahmud al-Zinati told AFP there were "many dead", including 17 children.
Egypt's government said 15 bodies have been recovered and transferred to a morgue so far.
Prime Minister Ismail Sharif went to an airport at the edge of the peninsula from where "15 bodies were airlifted to the Zeinhom morgue in Cairo", the government said in a statement.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Moscow's emergency ministry to dispatch … [Read more...] about ‘Many dead’ as Russian plane carrying 224 crashes in Sinai

Israel won a partial reprieve from the economic pain of its Gaza war on Thursday with the lifting of a U.S. ban on commercial flights to Tel Aviv, while continued fighting pushed the Palestinian death toll over 700. A truce remained elusive despise intensive mediation efforts. Israel says it needs more time to eradicate rocket stocks and cross-border tunnels in the Gaza Strip and Hamas Islamists demand the blockade on the enclave be lifted. An Egyptian official said on Wednesday that a more limited humanitarian ceasefire may go into effect by the weekend, in time for the Eid al-Fitr festival, Islam's biggest annual celebration that follows the fasting month of Ramadan. But the United States, whose Secretary of State John Kerry is spearheading the indirect negotiations, was more circumspect. "It would not be accurate to say that we expect a ceasefire by the weekend," said a senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We are continuing to work on it, but it is not set … [Read more...] about US lifts ban on flights to Israel as Gaza toll tops 700

Israeli forces shelled a U.N.-run school sheltering Palestinians in the northern Gaza strip, the Gaza health ministry said on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and raising the conflict's death toll to nearly 750.
Israel Radio said, without citing a source, that most of those killed at the United Nations school were children. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the incident reported as a truce between the Jewish state and Hamas-led Islamist guerrillas remained elusive, despite intensive attempts at mediation. Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, said that as well as the 15 dead, another 200 people were wounded in the attack. The director of a local hospital said various medical centers around Beit Hanoun in the coastal enclave were receiving the wounded. Pools of blood lay on the ground and on students' desks in the courtyard of the school near the apparent impact mark of the shell, according to a Reuters photographer at the scene. "Such a … [Read more...] about At least 15 dead in Israeli shelling of Gaza school: Health Ministry

The global airline and travel sectors battened down the hatches Tuesday for a possible swine flu pandemic which could deal another blow to two industries already reeling from the economic crisis. As images of people wearing face masks in public resurrected grim memories of the SARS health scare in 2003, analysts appealed for calm, saying it was too early to speculate on the impact of the new threat. "It's another kick in the teeth for travel and tourism. We could really do without this," Dale Lawrence, communications director for the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), told AFP. But Lawrence and other industry watchers stressed that there is no pandemic yet and while travellers should heed health advisories they should not allow panic to rule their decisions. "We would just urge the entire industry and the travelling public to keep this issue in perspective. This is not a pandemic yet," Lawrence said. With the likely death toll in Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak, now standing … [Read more...] about Airline, travel sectors ready for swine flu threat

HCM City's IIP surges 7% in seven months Notably, key industrial sectors, such as mechanical and manufacturing industry, electronics, chemicals, rubber and plastics and food processing, posted a year-on-year rise of 7.3 per cent, higher than the average growth of industry as a whole. This was attributed to their efforts to expand markets, update technology with new equipment and improve product quality and competitiveness, the municipal people's committee said. Sectors that posted growth in production are food and beverages (14.3 per cent), non-metallic products (21.3 per cent) and machinery and equipment (32.1 per cent). In July alone, the city's industrial production index rose by 3.1 per cent. During the month, the processing sector and industrial parks focused on drawing hi-tech investment projects and supporting business activities to record turnover of US$3.16 billion in exports and $3.17 billion in imports. The IIP in the first seven months of last year grew by 6.6 per … [Read more...] about BUSINESS IN BRIEF 14/8

ROME: Scores of flights were cancelled and thousands of passengers had their travel plans wrecked Thursday (May 7) after a fierce fire devastated part of a terminal at Rome's Fiumicino airport.The city's main airport was closed to passengers for several hours after a blaze triggered by an electrical fault in a bar broke out in terminal three, which is used for international flights.When the airport reopened, there were scenes of total chaos with thousands of people trying to find out what was happening and frantic airport staff desperately attempting to deal with the backlog and match disorientated and frustrated passengers to seats on waiting planes.The first departures of the day involving planes carrying passengers did not take place until after 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) and some carriers saw their entire day's schedule in and out of the airport wiped out.Three airport employees were treated for smoke inhalation but there were no serious injuries.The fire erupted shortly after midnight and … [Read more...] about Rome airport in chaos after fire devastates terminal